Sunday, August 04, 2013

John Paradiso, artist and curator for the 39th Street Gallery, and
Tim McLoraine, artist and independent curator based in the Gateway Arts
District, invite emerging and established artists to participate in the
Jewel Box Pop Up group exhibition during the month of September.

The
Jewel Box is a 2300sf former jewelry store located at 3104 Queens Chapel
Road in Hyattsville, MD. The Jewel Box will advertise and promote the
exhibition and host an Opening Reception and other programming during
the run of the show.

Approximately 25 artists
will be selected and be given a 10' section of wall (Art-o-Matic style)
with 4' of floor space. We also encourage 3 dimensional works to be
displayed throughout the space.

If interested,
please send contact information and 3 work samples (or link to your
online portfolio) by August 16th to jewelboxpopup@gmail.com

Starting August 7 and lasting for four days, the
Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design presents Deferral, a
site-specific performance by Mary Coble that addresses the Food and
Drug Administration’s policy of refusing blood donations from men who
have had sex with men since 1977.

The performance is the latest
in the NOW at the Corcoran series – the Gallery’s contemporary art
program dedicated to showcasing the work of emerging and mid-career
artists. NOW Performance addresses issues central to the local,
national, and global communities of Washington, D.C.

Over four
days, Coble and her collaborators encode the curtains of an anatomical
theater—formed by hospital curtains in the Corcoran’s Atrium—with text
and images from blood donor campaigns, regulations, and debates. The
artist writes using her own blood, drawn onsite, while her collaborators
work with thread as a stand in for their “illegal” blood.

Over the
course of the performance, their actions create an increasingly tangled
web, enveloping and impeding their shared space while reclaiming the
image of the male hero.

Deferral is a reaction to the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration policy of refusing blood donations from men who
have had sex with men (MSM). The FDA’s deferral policy started in 1983,
and since 1992 the FDA has permanently deferred MSM donations,
explaining: “A history of male-to-male sex is associated with an
increased risk for the presence and transmission of certain infectious
diseases, including HIV…”

Non-monogamous heterosexuals who have
knowingly engaged in intercourse with an HIV/AIDS-positive partner are
subject to a one year deferral before they may donate blood.

For
Coble, Deferral is a commentary on the FDA policy and marketing slogans
from blood donation campaigns that laud donors as “heroes” and as
“special” while calling those who do not donate “wusses.” According to
Coble, “gay men are never allowed to be heroes.”